The U.S. Congress should take control of cryptocurrency legislation to make it more of an “open process” where the entire market is considered “comprehensively,” says the head of a prominent U.S. crypto industry body.
In Bloomberg on February 22 interviewBlockchain Association CEO Christine Smith said the industry needs U.S. lawmakers to spearhead cryptocurrency legislation, despite it making the process “very slow” and regulators “getting involved” in the meantime.
Smith noted that while regulators are “acting very quickly,” legislative progress is taking place “behind closed doors,” suggesting that greater industry participation in an “open process” that will be visible in Congress.
Smith believes that the problem with regulators passing legislation with enforcement and settlement is due to “very specific facts and circumstances.”
She explained that Congress is currently in a quandary as many in Washington, D.C. who “were close” to former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Freed and FTX feel “burned” and “betrayed” by the the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange in November. 2022.
Smith is hopeful that regulation of the stablecoin will happen soon in the US, saying Congress has been considering it “as of 2019” and “the work is done.” She said it “was close” to what happened last year before the FTX crash.
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She also added that crypto risks are different from traditional financial services, so it is vital that regulators take more time to study market regulation and “adapt to these risks.”
Smith suggested that regulation of the stablecoin and the “market side” should take precedence over focusing on the legal regulation of crypto-related criminal activity, stating that public ledgers make it “much more transparent” than we see in the traditional financial system.
This comes after Blockchain Association Chief Policy Officer Jake Czerwinski tweeted on Feb. 15 that no matter how much enforcement action the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) apply, they are “connected legal reality,” adding that “none of them” has the authority to “comprehensively regulate cryptocurrencies.”
Credit : cointelegraph.com
